Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) has nothing but
the highest praise for New York’s Finest and was delighted by yesterday’s
arrest in connection with the attack of a 56-year-old woman at
the F train station ON 18th Avenue in Borough Park. But Assemblyman Hikind is very concerned about
what appears to be a delay in the process and is asking why the video footage of
the mugging was not released earlier.

“We
spent more than $1 million to protect our community and the people who come
here by installing video surveillance cameras,” said Hikind, who put 120
security cameras in the nine stations in his district. Boro Park’s N train, D
train and F train stops are blanketed by cameras designed to give police an added
advantage and deter crime. The Assemblyman has contacted NYPD Transit Chief Joe
Fox to ask why there was a delay in utilizing this equipment.

“There
have been nearly 4,000 robberies in New York City this year but apprehending criminals
and terrorists is much easier when video is available. That’s why it’s
concerning that this crime in our community took place on March 9th but
the video was not made public until April 2nd. What happened during the three
weeks prior?”

An arrest was made just two days after the video was released. If public circulation
of videos and photos of crime suspects are valuable to investigations, why delay
the release of this video?

Assemblyman Hikind also noted that the toll booth at
the F train station on 18th Avenue, where the recent crime occurred,
is supposed to be manned 24 hours/day, and that two security monitors face the booth,
in full view of the booth’s clerk. “At
2:40 a.m., when the crime was reported to have occurred, it’s unlikely that many
Metro cards were being sold,” said Hikind. “So what was the clerk doing? How
could they have missed this event?”

Last
year, the Assemblyman also announced another wave of cutting-edge security cameras
for his community. The Leiby Kletzky Security Initiative, which is still in the
planning stages, will blanket Boro Park and Midwood in an effort to prevent
street crime, vandalism, terrorism and kidnapping.